The current practice and state of the art in the pet containment industry is to use radio waves to detect when a pet such as a dog has come too close to a boundary. In these systems, it is required that the pet owners bury a wire around the perimeter of the boundary and connect a modulated signal generator to the wire loop. The pet then wears a spacial collar that detects the electromagnetic field emitted from the wire loop and administers a correction signal to the animal when it approaches the boundary. The wire is buried around the perimeter of the yard, and the active zone of the collar can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the amplitude of the signal generator.
The collar usually contains a two axis pickup coil to detect the magnetic fields around the loop and the necessary electronics to discriminate against noise and amplify and compare signals to produce a high voltage shock. Although these systems are not visible on the property and are less laborious to install than a standard post fence, there is still quite a lot of work involved in burying the wire loop. Furthermore, there is a maximum area which can be attained.
In the past, wireless systems have been developed to overcome these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,129 to Boardman describes a system that incorporates transmitting antennas installed on the property and a collar worn by the dog to process the antenna transmissions and deliver an electrical shock when a dog advances to a boundary. However, the complexity and expense of these systems makes them undesirable. Furthermore, the spacial resolution is limited for precise boundary discrimination.
Prior attempts to produce a GPS based containment system have had limited success, primarily because of their approach. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,757 to Touchton et al. describes a GPS containment system for pet containment. This system requires an external computer to perform all calculations and decision making. U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,757 is related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,747 and requires a separate portable programming transceiver to program the boundary of a selected confinement area. The programming transceiver must be moved along such boundary during programming. This system requires a collar for wear by the pet and a computer located at a remote base to process the necessary data for the system. This system requires at least two GPS systems for operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,757 describes a GPS based pet containment system whereby the user walks the perimeter with a separate transceiver, and the transceiver simply transmits the coordinates to a Windows based PC located at the house. The PC (Personal Computer) then stores the information in memory and contains software to map out the boundary of the containment area. Furthermore, the system includes a dog collar for transmitting GPS coordinates to the PC, wherein the PC performs all computations and determines whether the dog has breached a safe zone. If there has been a breach, then the PC issues a separate radio signal to the dog collar, which activates a correction signal. Hence, in this system, the collar only relays information and all processing is performed remotely. Thus, this system requires at least two GPS systems. The system includes a dog collar containing a GPS receiver and a radio link for the coordinates, a portable programming transceiver with a GPS system including a radio link for the coordinates, a PC, a communication device on the PC and satellite monitoring computer including a GPS system and modem. Furthermore, this invention is operable in only 2 dimensions and all equipment must function in conjunction with the remote PC. To program the boundary, the transceiver requires the operator to press buttons to add containment points, and it must be informed which areas are safe and excluded. An added problem with this invention concerns multiple targets. In this embodiment, the control station must address all dogs, and the control station must compute, determine, and execute simultaneously to all dogs in an area through some addressable technique. This solution can be costly and complicated.
Another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,100 to Marsh, requires a separate boundary definition transmitter to record data to a portable unit and discusses a fixed station for addressing the livestock. For livestock management, all processing is performed at the external processor and only simple area geometries are described.
The present invention features full duplex communication for inputting coordinates, as well as reporting information such as location, speed, medical parameters, and satellite health. The device of the present invention has the capability to call or transmit important information such as location, speed, identity, and medical parameters to a station automatically or when polled. All necessary analog and digital circuitry, (D)GPS hardware, microprocessor, programming, and communications hardware are fully integrated into a small device.